I am still a little sore and uncomfortable, but am going to attempt to post this message. I am only a week into recovery after surgery, so may not be on every day!

This is an appropriate time to discuss praying for courage together at the Prayer Gates. So much has happened in the year 2012, in the world, and in our own personal lives. My own situations going into the year 2013, that I think we need that shot in the arm we can get from gathering to pray for courage.We each may relate to this a little differently. Some may have suffered a personal loss, others are struggling in different ways. And across the earth, violence, hunger, homelessness, and dislocation are occurring; making it easy to suffer from discouragement.

But we are to take courage; for the Lord has not abandoned us; nor forsaken us.

Hebrews 13:15

15.)Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to this name.

So let us gather in the name of Jesus, and pray together for courage; specifically, and give praise to Him, also. And if you are like me and can not gather with others, please take some time to pray for courage for yourself and others, and to praise and thanks Him. We can cordinate and make this a mighty prayer, but even uncoordinated the Lord will hear our prayer, and respond! He will answer our Prayers!

Today I am going to give you quite a bit of homestudy to do; simply because I do have room for all of the reading material that must be covered. But I will post the first verse for you.

Matthew 25:1

1.) Than shall the Kingdom of Heaven be liked unto ten virgins , which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridgegroom.

How can we be ready to meet the Lord?

1.] We must be saved!

2.] We must be living as the Lord wants us to. For instance we must give up our bad habits; and characteristics, to the best of our abilities. We can not continue to party, lie, cheat and steal. We must live moral and clean lives, including no sex unless you are married.

3.]Matthew 25:14-27

27.) You ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have recieved back my own with interests.

In this story we are dealing with money, but interestly, I believe that this is meant to teach about using your talent to do the Lord's work. So many of us are afraid to use our talents for God, so we hide what we can do. Or we are ashamed that we only have a little talent, where some have much talent. TheLord wants us to use our talent; and to be grateful for what we have.

4.] Matthew 25:34-40

Matthew 25:40

40.)And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these brethren, ye have done it unto me.

We are to help others; and to help those who we do not want to help. Maybe not with money, but there are many ways to help others. This Christian attribute is needed more than ever in this modern day world.

This is an important prayer! In our Christian lives; we all need to have strong foundations in our lives. This comes from daily prayer, Bible study, and living Godly principles; however, it also comes from prayer and the Holy Spirit. When we gather together to pray at the Prayer Gates, or when we go to our Prayer Room, to prayer alone, for strong foundations, we are inviting God to help us in creating strong foundations.

When we pray for others to have a strong foundation; we are creating strong foundations for the fellowship of Christians as a whole.

The most important to remember is that in order to have a strong foundation, you have to be saved by Jesus. For Jesus is the Cornerstone, the Rock, and our salvation. And here are words from Jesus about foundations~

Luke 6:46-49

46.)"But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord', and not do the things which I say?

47.) "Whoever comes to Me, and hears my sayings, I will show you whom he is like;

48.) "He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock.

49.) "But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."

When you go to the Prayer Gates to pray for strong foundations; remember that prayer is only the beginning. You must also hear the words of Jesus and His teaching; and than you take a step further and act upon those teachings of Jesus!This is what will give you a strong foundation, and will make your prayers for others more effective.

If you have not read the gospels of the New Testament for awhile, I urge you to begin a new study of the four gospels in the New Testament.

People who do not know Jesus as a personal Savior are in darkness. Because they do not know the Lord, they have no understanding of spiritual truth. They are walking in darkness. In fact some people who do not know the Lord, are so confused that they begin to think that evil is good, and good is evil.You can not get through to these people with words but only with prayer!

Also people who fall away from the Lord, become confused and walk in darkness also. They lose understanding of spiritual truth. Only prayer will help them!